Digital Commons Network^™

Board Of Pharmacy, Shannon Dart, Angela O’Hara

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Veterinary Medical Board, Lindsay Thompson, Katie Gonzalez

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of The Marine Invertebrate Community Associated With Amathia Verticillata, Emily Masini Zavacki, Nathalie Reyns Phd, Michel Boudrias Phd, Jeff Crooks Phd

Theses

Non-indigenous species (NIS) are often thought to have negative consequences on ecosystems. However, some NIS are ecosystem engineers, organisms that modify and/or create habitats by changing physical structure (either biogenic or abiotic), such as Amathia verticillata (previously Zoobotryon verticillatum [delle Chiaje, 1822]), a non-indigenous bryozoan with a global distribution. The role of NIS as ecosystem engineers can be complicated due to the mix of impacts that they may have on the ecosystem. Thus, the role of A. verticillata as an ecosystem engineer may shift our understanding about its ecological role on anthropogenic structures, such as docks through an urbanized area, …

The Minutes Of The Marshall University Staff Council Meeting, August 2023, Marshall University Staff Council

Staff Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Neuroanatomical And Neurochemical Effects Of Prolonged Social Isolation In Adult Mice, Vibol Heng, Michael Zigmond, Richard Jay Smeyne

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: As social animals, our health depends in part on interactions with other human beings. Yet millions suffer from chronic social isolation, including those in nursing/assisted living facilities, people experiencing chronic loneliness as well as those in enforced isolation within our criminal justice system. While many historical studies have examined the effects of early isolation on the brain, few have examined its effects when this condition begins in adulthood. Here, we developed a model of adult isolation using mice (C57BL/6J) born and raised in an enriched environment.

METHODS: From birth until 4 months of age C57BL/6J mice were raised in …

Improved Boreal Vegetation Mapping Using Imaging Spectroscopy To Aid Wildfire Management, Interior Alaska, Anushree Badola

Geosciences

Wildfires are a natural and essential part of Alaska ecosystems, but excessive wildfires pose a risk to the ecosystem's health and diversity, as well as to human life and property. To manage wildfires effectively, vegetation/fuel maps play a critical role in identifying high-risk areas and allocating resources for prevention, suppression, and recovery efforts. Furthermore, vegetation/fuel maps are an important input for fire behavior models, along with weather and topography data. By predicting fire behavior, such as spread rate, intensity, and direction, fuel models allow fire managers to make informed decisions about wildfire suppression, management, and prevention. Traditionally used vegetation/fuel maps …

Applying Information Theory To Gamera Simulations Of Jupiter-Like Magnetospheres, Blake Mino

Physics

Magnetospheres are poorly understood, largely due to lack of significant amounts of in-situ data and the complexity of the systems. Accurate numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) magnetosphere simulation codes can bolster this lack of observational data. In this thesis, we explore applying mutual information theory techniques to a global-scale Jovian-like magnetosphere simulation provided by the Grid Agnostic MHD for Extended Research Applications (GAMERA) code. The mutual information between two variables is a measure of their dependency and is even capable of detecting nonlinear relationships, unlike traditional linear correlation calculations. Time shifted mutual information is a useful metric for identifying possible causal relationships …

Defining The Roles Of Pyruvate Oxidation, Tca Cycle, And Mannitol Metabolism In Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection, Santosh Paudel, Sarah Guedry, Chloe L P Obernuefemann, Scott J. Hultgren, Jennifer N. Walker, Ritwij Kulkarni

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of complicated urinary tract infection (UTI) associated with the use of indwelling urinary catheters. Previous reports have revealed host and pathogen effectors critical for MRSA uropathogenesis. Here, we sought to determine the significance of specific metabolic pathways during MRSA UTI. First, we identified four mutants from the Nebraska transposon mutant library in the MRSA JE2 background that grew normally in rich medium but displayed significantly reduced growth in pooled human urine (HU). This prompted us to transduce the uropathogenic MRSA 1369 strain with the transposon mutants in

An Odontometric Biodistance Analysis Of The Rong And The A'Chik, Mary Ashley Stough

Anthropology

Little is known about the population history and genetic affinities of many of the tribal groups of northeastern India, including the Rong and the A'chik. Previous linguistic and genetic studies have suggested that these non-Hindu tribal groups may be descendants of East Asian immigrants. Due to the linguistic and genetic research, cultural differences between the groups, and geographic barriers it was hypothesized that members of these two tribal groups share a population history different from that of ethnic groups of other regions of the subcontinent. This study employs tooth size allocation analysis to test hypotheses concerning the origins of the …

Adapting Density Surface Models For Complex Survey Areas: Application To Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Abundance And Distribution Estimation In Southeast Alaska, Abigail Schiffmiller

Biological Sciences

Population abundance and distribution estimates are foundational to understanding and managing populations. Increasing accuracy and resolution of such estimates increases their utility for researchers and managers. Line transect surveys analyzed using both traditional design-based distance sampling (dbDS) and spatially explicit density surface modeling (DSM) are used across systems and taxa to estimate abundance and distributions of populations. DSM has the advantages of being able to increase the resolution of density estimates and evaluate the correlation between density and environmental factors as well as accepting data from a wider variety of surveys. In this thesis I used a soap film smoother …

Assessing Fish Communities And Habitat Dynamics At The North Platte River-Lake Mcconaughy Interface: Implications For Conservation And Management, Thyme Leesa Taulaki

Biology Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The river-reservoir interface (RRI) provides dynamic habitat heterogeneity that influences fish communities within the reservoir and the tributary upstream. However, little is known about the North Platte River-Lake McConaughy interface. Thus, the objectives of this research were to: 1) describe fish assemblages in the North Platte River and relate their temporal differences to water quality and physical habitat parameters; and 2) compare young fish communities collected with different gears in the upper reservoir. Twenty-nine species were collected across four habitat types in the North Platte River above Lake McConaughy. Main and side channel habitats were more consistently available throughout the …

Evaluation Of Enterococcal Probiotic Usage And Review Of Potential Health Benefits, Safety, And Risk Of Antibiotic-Resistant Strain Emergence, Eric J. Im, Harry H.-Y. Lee, Minzae Kim, Myo-Kyoung Kim

Pacific Faculty Work

Enterococci are often used in probiotics but can also cause nosocomial infections. As such, enterococcal consumption may have beneficial health effects, but a thorough evaluation of virulence absence and risk of antibiotic resistance spread is needed at the strain level. This article reviewed ten online health product shopping websites in the US. On these websites, 23 probiotic products using enterococci were found across 12 companies. In addition, this article reviewed studies that demonstrated the probiotic potential of enterococcal consumption (e.g., gastrointestinal and respiratory disease, hyperlipidemia alleviation, as well as infection prevention). To investigate the safety aspects of enterococci, the present …

Reliability Of Trans-Generational Genetic Mark-Recapture For Enumerating Pacific Salmon, Samuel W. Rosenbaum

Fisheries

As Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) continue to decline across much of their range, it is imperative to further develop reliable tools to quantify trends in population abundance. Estimating the number of spawning adult Pacific salmon (escapement) is a fundamental but challenging objective for fishery managers. Escapement monitoring of Pacific salmon typically requires intensive sampling across the return migration, often in remote locations, and is subject to changing environmental conditions that can reduce data quality. Alternative methods that increase the efficiency, accuracy, and precision of escapement monitoring are desirable, particularly during times of shrinking budgets for fisheries management. With the advent …

The Effect Of Sedimentation On Spore Settlement And Recruitment Of The Endemic Arctic Kelp, Laminaria Solidungula, Jaide Phelps

Marine Biology

The Arctic is experiencing rapid rates of environmental change due to ramifications of a warming climate and human development. Environmental changes can enhance the impact of abiotic stressors, such as sedimentation from enhanced river discharge, permafrost melt, coastal erosion, or construction activities on Arctic nearshore ecosystems. Diverse habitat types, such as kelp beds that populate nearshore systems, are especially vulnerable to these environmental impacts. High sedimentation rates can be detrimental to kelp abundance and distribution, possibly due to increased mortality at the spore dispersal and settlement stages. This study aimed to examine sedimentation effects on spore settlement and viability of …

Influence Of Freshwater Processes On Juvenile Chinook Salmon Size, Movement, And Outmigration Timing In The Chena River, Alaska, Olivia N. Edwards

Fisheries

Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha have experienced population declines across their range in recent decades, including Alaska where they are a critical subsistence, commercial, and sport fish species. The Alaska Board of Fisheries has listed Yukon River Chinook salmon as a "stock of yield concern" since 2000 prompting the implementation of escapement goals for key spawning tributaries in 2001. Additionally, research efforts across the basin have increased to better understand potential mechanisms behind these declines and provide information to facilitate management decisions. To help fill a critical data gap in the overall understanding of the fishery, this research investigated various freshwater …

From Colonization To Conservation: Examining Representations Of Nonhuman Arctic Animals In British Children's Literature During The Long Nineteenth Century, Hannah Ney

Arctic and Northern Studies

This paper examines the impact of British children's literature on shaping attitudes toward the Arctic and its nonhuman animals during the long nineteenth century. As the British renewed their interest in the Arctic, authors used children's literature to convey imperial ambitions and shape beliefs about the region. Using an ecocritical lens, this analysis demonstrates that the crafting of nonhuman animal portrayals helped shape children's beliefs about the Arctic and its role in the British Empire. The literature showcased illustrates a significant shift in British attitudes toward the human-environment relationship, moving from exploration to exploitation to protection. Early exploration narratives introduced …

“Já Muito Estropeadas”: Bodies And Landscapes Of Oppression In Rodolfo Teófilo’S A Fome, Mikaela Wood

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis article analyzes Rodolfo Teófilo's novel "A fome" through the lens of ecofeminism, exploring the representations of gender and nature in Brazilian literature. The novel, set during a devastating drought in the Northeast, follows Manuel de Freitas and his family as they seek relief in Ceará. While existing criticism has focused on the novel's use of nature and masculinity, the portrayal of female characters and the connection between gender and nature representations have been overlooked. Ecofeminist theory offers a critical perspective to understand these dynamics, revealing the devaluation of women and nature in favor of men and human beings …

Investigating Putative Toxin-Immunity Pairs From A New Class Of Rhs Proteins In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Syed Faieq Imam

Master's Theses

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative, opportunistic pathogen that is ubiquitous in nature, especially in human/animal impacted environments. One of the reasons for this is the arsenal of protein systems and toxins that P. aeruginosa utilizes to mold its environment to suit its needs. Recently, we discovered a novel locus in the P. aeruginosa genome, which resembles other loci that are known to mediate interbacterial competition. Our bioinformatic analysis found this locus to be enriched in a rearrangement hotspot (rhs) motif which led us to ad-interim term the three ORFs of the loci as rhsB, rhsC, and rhsI. Furthermore, we have …

Evaluating Amino Acid Isotopic Biomarkers Of Added Sugar And Animal Protein Intakes, Jessica Jean Johnson

Biological Sciences

Diet is an important risk factor for chronic disease, but identifying precise relationships between diet and disease remains challenging because of the high error in self-reported dietary measurements. Objective biomarkers of diet can help account for this error. Natural abundance amino acid carbon isotopes ratios (AA CIRs) and nitrogen isotope ratios (AA NIRs) are candidate biomarkers of multiple dietary intakes in the US, due to their natural variation in the diet. In this dissertation, I evaluate whether AA CIRs and AA NIRs are sensitive and specific biomarkers of intakes, such as added sugar and animal protein, in the context of …

Using Camera Traps To Advance Wildlife Monitoring In The Arctic, Scott S. Leorna

Biological Sciences

Landscape-level wildlife monitoring in the Arctic is technically and logistically challenging. The Arctic is experiencing rapid and unprecedented climate-related changes as well as increased industrial development. Understanding how environmental change and anthropogenic activity impact wildlife populations is essential to informing responsible management and policy decisions. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are a wide-ranging, highly mobile species in the Arctic with important socio-economic, cultural, and ecological value. Most caribou herds across the circumpolar north are in decline or at historic lows. These conditions create an urgent demand to assess conventional wildlife monitoring strategies and inform opportunities to advance them by integrating new techniques …

Female Dall's Sheep Summer Nutrition In The Chugach Mountains, Alaska, Luke Metherell

Biological Sciences

As part of recent research efforts by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to identify issues related to current population declines in Alaskan Dall's sheep (Ovis dalli dalli), we conducted a summer nutrition study on a subpopulation of female Dall's sheep (ewes) in the Chugach Mountains of Southcentral Alaska. Over the summers of 2016, 2017, and 2018, we assessed ewe diet compositions and identified forage types through video observation of foraging ewes. During this time, we collected forage and fecal samples to evaluate ewe forage quality [crude protein (%), gross energy (kcal/g), and apparent digestibility (Da)] and identify …

Seasonal Drivers Of Amplitude Patterns In A Population Of Red-Backed Voles (Clethrionomys Rutilus), Sarah Swanson

Biological Sciences

Northern red-backed voles (Clethrionomys rutilus) are an important species in the Interior Alaska boreal forest ecosystem, both as important herbivores and as a key food source for many mammalian and avian predators. However, they exhibit dramatic inter- and intra-annual population fluctuations, for which causes are not entirely known. Winter mortality is often very high and altered weather conditions due to climate change, such as rain on snow or delayed snowfall in autumn, may increase stress during an already difficult season. These considerations prompted this investigation into overwinter survival of northern red-backed voles in Denali National Park and Preserve, with the …

An 11,600-Year Reconstruction Of Vegetation Communities, Moisture Availability, And Land Use Changes At Lake Khargal, Northern Mongolia, Joshua A. Barna

Geosciences

The regional response of vegetation to global atmospheric circulation patterns and human influence throughout the Holocene is recorded by environmental proxies in sediment cores from Lake Khargal in northern Mongolia. Pollen, spores, total organic carbon, and grain size analysis indicate that conditions in the watershed were moderately humid at ~11500 cal yr B.P. The vegetation community surrounding Lake Khargal consists of mainly of Artemisia (sage), Poaceae (grass), and Betula (birch) with a modest amount of extra-local Pinus (pine) from nearby boreal forests. Fluctuations in the ratios of these and other taxa show that aridity increased after ~10000 cal yr B.P., …

Development Of Sulfidogenic Bioremediation Technology For The Treatment Of Acid Mine Drainage In Alaska, Qifan Yang

Engineering

When it comes to the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD), sulfate-reducing bioreactors are more sustainable and inexpensive compared to traditional alkaline treatment methods. As a passive system, sulfate-reducing bioreactors require not only less energy, but also less labor for operation. Sulfate reducing microbial community present in the bioreactor utilizes ����42− as electron acceptor and supplemented organic matter, such as glycerol, as terminal electron donor, and generates alkalinity and sulfides. This process not only neutralizes the acidity, but also removes soluble sulfate. The sulfides can further react with dissolved metal ions in the wastewater and produce precipitates. In this research, …

Environmental Controls On Foraging And Growth Of Juvenile Salmonids In A Southeast Alaska Watershed, Kevin A. Fitzgerald

Fisheries

Small coastal drainages in southeast Alaska (SEAK) support an exceptionally vast and productive region of anadromous fish habitat. However, streamflow patterns within this region are changing. It is expected that hydrologic inputs to streamflow will shift toward increased rain-water contribution, and that extreme high and low water events will become more frequent. Such changes will likely alter the foraging and growth environment of juvenile salmonids throughout this landscape, yet implications of hydrologic change to juvenile salmonid rearing habitats are poorly understood. Moreover, basic questions regarding streamflow impacts on fish foraging and the relative importance of marine-derived resources (MDR) from spawning …

Collection Data: Sharing, Discovery, Inspiration, And Innovation, Angela Yon

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

The presentation will focus on the collections as data approach in digital collections, surveying projects that applied collections into datasets amenable to computational use and novel research methods. Discussion will explore how digital collections can be transformed into different high-quality datasets (geographic data, text mining, genealogical information, etc.) and their potential for wider accessibility, reusability, and digital humanities research. Digital collections are an inclusive information space for complex data analysis and interactive data visualizations. These creations can inspire new discovery and narratives of art and interdisciplinary studies, and connections within an institution’s collections, on a broader information landscape with other …

Soil Seed Bank Composition And Spatial Distribution In A Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum L.)–Dominated Rangeland In Colorado, Usa, Ryan W. R. Schroeder, Jayne L. Jonas, M. Nikki Grant-Hoffman, Mark W. Paschke

Western North American Naturalist

Invasion by nonnative annual plants that form prolific seed banks, including Bromus tectorum L. (cheatgrass), throughout western North America is a major natural resource concern. Even with known economic and ecological implications, soil seed banks and their potential to impact ecological restoration in arid and semiarid ecosystems are poorly understood. Quantifying the regenerative potential of the soil seed bank—the living seeds in the soil profile and on the soil surface—can help natural resource managers make decisions to increase the likelihood of restoration success. We analyzed the germinable soil seed bank composition and distribution of a rangeland site in western Colorado …

Plutarch On Marriage For Its Own Sake: What Makes Marriage Good And What Marriage Is Good For In The Coniugalia Praecepta, Patrick Andrews

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Modeling Of Heat And Mass Transfer In Flat Heat Pipes, Salar Saadatian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Phase-change phenomenon is ubiquitous in nature and widely utilized in thermal management of computer chips. Flat heat pipes have been extensively used in thermal management of microelectronic devices. However, existing research mainly concentrates on developing numerical models and lacks a systematic analytical approach to elucidate the working mechanism of flat heat pipes. We consider a horizontal flat heat pipe with an idealized porous wick. The pores in the wick are straight circular capillaries running along and across the wick and are filled with a liquid. The rest of the pipe is filled with its vapor. The mass evaporative rate at …

Genetic Dissection Of Crossover Mutants Defines Discrete Intermediates In Mouse Meiosis, Tolkappiyan Premkumar, Lakshmi Paniker, Rhea Kang, Mathilde Biot, Ericka Humphrey, Isabella Ferranti, Holly Nguyen, Vindhya Kilaru, Melissa Frasca, Parijat Chakraborty, Francesca Cole

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Crossovers (COs), the exchange of homolog arms, are required for accurate chromosome segregation during meiosis. Studies in yeast have described the single-end invasion (SEI) intermediate: a stabilized 3' end annealed with the homolog as the first detectible CO precursor. SEIs are thought to differentiate into double Holliday junctions (dHJs) that are resolved by MutLgamma (MLH1/MLH3) into COs. Currently, we lack knowledge of early steps of mammalian CO recombination or how intermediates are differentiated in any organism. Using comprehensive analysis of recombination in thirteen different genetic conditions with varying levels of compromised CO resolution, we infer CO precursors include asymmetric SEI-like …